Going Back Home Again When are you going back?”Often I reply-I have an open ticket. Cups of tea full of sugar and milkThe full Irish or Ulster frySomber heart felt chatby stony graveyard walls.Old paths – now jungle under growthsYou wonder where time went.No one here knows you anymore.A couple of older neighborsstill tell how … Continue reading
Filed under emigration …
Irish Fiddle Music in Nulla Nulla Creek
A musical tradition found along the banks of the winding stream that makes up the Nulla Nulla Creek where my grandfather Billy Kyle lovingly nurtured Irish traditional music so that we too remember and indeed continue to cherish those songs and sounds today. Continue reading
Elvis Presley’s Irish Roots
He had a granddaughter called Rosella who had several children, one of whom was a son called Jesse Presley. In 1913, Jesse Presley married a lady named Minnie Mae. They had a son in 1916 called Vernon Elvis Presley. Continue reading
A Blacksmith from Limerick in New York
Peter Clarke was indeed a blacksmith of Limerick. His father, Joseph, left Limerick and his business at Brunswick Lane and settled in New York in 1869. Continue reading
A Brief History of the Irish in Australia
With the passage of time Irish Catholics eventually did become part of the fabric of Australian society. With the coming of each generation, they moved along and some of them, up the social scale. But their ascent was neither rapid nor easy. Continue reading
Bilingual Haiku
Crainn Jacaranda,/buamaí gorma áille…
Jacaranda trees,lovely explosions of blue. Continue reading
Feisty Irish Women and Irish National Foresters
Susan has had international recognition with her interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio1…The Irish National Foresters were a Friendly Society that commenced in Ireland and then started in Melbourne in 1886 … Continue reading
God in a Bottle
they were usually ‘a reused glass spirit, wine or mineral bottle often containing a carved wooden cross, with a ladder leaning against it inside, sometimes (but not always) filled with water’. The water was usually holy water, or at least marketed as such. Continue reading
Based on truth and story: the Irish ballad tradition and its relevance to today.
The other songs cut straight to the chase of the reality of war. Mrs McGrath and Johnny, I hardly knew you. They give a heartbreaking perspective on the horror and futility of war and although tinged with humour they give a firsthand account of the injuries and lifelong disabilities inflicted. Continue reading
November rain in Dublin
by Michael Patrick Moore ‘Come here to me, let me tell ya, don’t the living be busy today?’comings and goings on Graftonand on Merrion; where the craic is good,O’Donaghues is full. There are footsteps on quay, bridge and streettapping away like rain on tin,all servants of masters with somewhere to be or someone to meetand … Continue reading
